Honesty more important than natural ingredients?

The Future of Beauty report by Evolve Beauty, which conducted a survey of 336 women between 20-55 years old, found that trust rated higher than natural ingredients when it came to purchasing beauty products.

When asked to imagine a future beauty company, the top criteria were honesty, truthfulness and transparency, which surprisingly came even before natural ingredients and green packaging. Laura Rudoe, founder of Evolve Beauty, explained why this may be the case: “Perhaps, because it is so difficult for customers to decipher what is actually going into their products, they need to be able to trust the beauty brands that they purchase from.”

The survey found that although over 90% of respondents are concerned about toxins in beauty products, when asked about their awareness of the top ten potentially problematic ingredients, that companies often claim to exclude, more than half of respondents were unaware of five out of the ten. Parabens and silicones were the best known, with ingredients with acronyms such as PEGs and DEA having the lowest levels of awareness.

Further, more than half of respondents were unclear about natural and organic standards. Lack of regulation of the term ‘natural’ and competing and conflicting organic standards have left consumers really confused, according to Evolve.